Counting Years, Shedding Seconds

James Sloane has been playing basketball in Brownsville, Brooklyn, for most of his 68 years.Point guard, likes to shoot the long ball. The kids call him Pop.

“I’m a gentle, nice guy,” he said, “but once I start playing the game, it’s on. I take no prisoners.”

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Standing for the National Anthem before the 2018 Senior Games on Staten Island.

Judith George, 61, a grandmother of five, likes to lift weights and run track. “I just want to win,” she said. “I get more energy.”

Earlier this month, they took their game to the Senior Games, for athletes age 50 and up.

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Judith George, 61.

Gaia Squarci, who is 29, became fascinated by older athletes at her neighborhood gym in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, which draws locals of all ages and ethnicities. Orthodox Jewish children compete alongside gray-haired Yemeni immigrants, and the guy on the next treadmill might be an elite sprinter or an old man using a walking stick.

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Competing in the long jump at the 2018 Senior Games.

The third annual Senior Games, organized by the Parks Department in Brooklyn and on Staten Island earlier this month, gave her an opportunity to shoot those bodies.

Some arrived in wheelchairs.

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Jill Kelly, 70.

Some literally demanded notice, Ms. Squarci said.

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James Sloane, 68.

“Sorry, baby,” Mr. Sloane told her, as he changed out of a sweat-soaked shirt. “I have to show you this beautiful body I got.”

A few days later, he laughed about the comment.

“I’m not trying to show off or anything,” he said. “I didn’t mean her no harm.”

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On the basketball court, where teams played three-on-three, Ms. Squarci was taken aback slightly when Mr. Sloane’s humor changed to rancor, as he dogged one of his teammates. “I found out later he was his best friend,” she said.

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At the pool in Brownsville Recreation Center.

Competition was intense but amiable, Ms. Squarci said. When athletes took extra time to finish in the pool or on the track, the others cheered them on. Some of the track competitors ran; others walked.

But on the pickleball court — sort of a cross between tennis and Ping-Pong, with a ball that resembles a Whiffle ball — Jill Kelly, 70, a retired CitiBank officer, stormed out of the gym, pumped. Ms. Squarci asked her what happened.

“We just won, but the adrenaline is killing me,” Ms. Kelly told her. “I’m so competitive, you know.”

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Jane Katz, 75.

For Ms. Squarci, the competition broadened the way she looked at the older people around her.

“They were lighthearted and carefree,” she said. “I was struck by how some were incredibly tough, and they preserved all the characteristics that were part of their character when they were younger.

“It was touching in way it probably wouldn’t have been if the contenders were 20 or 30 years old.”

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Selfie with pickleball paddle, Brownsville Recreation Center.

John Leland, a Metro reporter, joined The Times in 2000. His most recent book is “Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old,” based on a Times series. @johnleland